The UK government will continue to give aid to India and will change the way it works with and within emerging economies in the fight to reduce poverty, the international development secretary said on Tuesday.

In a speech at Chatham House, Andrew Mitchell said the rise of the so-called Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries and their growing influence on world affairs meant the UK needed to adapt the way it works with them, and how it delivers aid. Mitchell said the government would form new partnerships with emerging economies to "galvanise our efforts to achieve the millennium development goals and to drive yet harder the eradication of global poverty".

The minister used the speech to confirm that aid to China would be wound down next month, and that the UK would continue to give aid to India, targeting the poorest people in the country's poorest states.

In January, the UK's international development committee began an inquiry into the future of the Department for International Development's (DfID) aid programmes to India.

"Some people – in both the UK and India – have been asking whether the time has come to end British aid to India. In my view, we are not there yet," said Mitchell. "The whole rationale for my department is, eventually, to work ourselves out of a job. But having discussed this with the government of India, I believe that, for the next few years, it is in both India's interest and in Britain's interest for us to continue our highly successful collaboration on development, not least so we can support the government of India's own successful programmes in the poorest priority areas."

Some of this aid is to be used to support wealth creation and entrepreneurship and to "unlock the potential" of the private sector. Mitchell has made no secret of his desire to increase private sector involvement in development. A private sector department has been created within DfID to boost enterprise in the poorest countries.

Andy Sumner, a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, in Sussex, who gave evidence to the committee inquiry, said it was strategically important for the UK to continue giving aid to India because the "UK has a 'special relationship' with India via history and the Indian diaspora in the UK". He added: "This makes it easier to turn a blind eye to the billions in the space programme and [$300bn] forex reserves and find more altruistic or pragmatic diplomatic reasons.

"For development bods at DfID and in the UK NGOs, it's about supporting the poor. For diplomats and the foreign office, aid is part of bilateral ties, security and intelligence sharing. Most importantly, the balance of power has swung towards India, and the UK wouldn't want to risk a long-standing friendship with one of the world's next big powers."

Last year, Sumner published research which showed that three-quarters of the world's poor now live in middle-income countries, such as India, which would have implications for how and where donors target aid in the future.

Sharing expertise

At Chatham House, Mitchell went on to explain how the UK is already working with emerging countries to establish programmes in Africa. It is working with Brazil to "share expertise" of its Bolsa Familia cash transfer programme to establish something similar in Kenya. Britain is also working with China to support a road-building scheme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He went on to talk about the importance of partnerships between countries to address some of the most pressing global issues. The UK's partnerships will be based on "mutual respect and added value", and a shared commitment to the millennium development goals.

"The truth is that there are few, if any, big development challenges that we can hope to tackle without the help of new partners. Polio will never be eradicated without Nigeria's support. Food security will remain an aspiration without India's buy-in. We'll never solve climate change without China."

He added that a dedicated team would be created to ensure DfID, the Foreign Office and other departments work more closely with emerging powers on development.

The long-anticipated results of DfID's "root and branch" review of its bilateral and multilateral aid programmes are expected to be announced in the first week of March.